The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-09-29
ARABIAN WOMEN.
A Housewives Duties in Modern
Bible Land.
Syrian DANES Work Hard While
Their Husbands Loaf.

Their Husbands Loaf.
There arc grand women in Arabia;
women Of ability, keen in insight, and
wonderful capabilities, writes Florence
NJ. Jones q, the Swiss Cross. The duties
of the witot Syrian to-day are as fol-
lows: sly brings all the water for
family use from distant well. This
is accomplished by filing immense jars,
and bringing them upon her head. She
rises early, aud goes to the handmill OF
the village, carrying corn, enough oil
which for the days bread she grinds by
slow, laborious process. This she car
ries home and cooks in an oven, which
is made in the earth. 1t is a round hole,
lined with oval and fiat stones, AID
heated by a fire built in it. When the
bread is mixed with water and little
salt, she removes the ashes, and plasters
pats of dough against the hot stones to
cook. Could anything be more crude1
She cares for her children, unusually
large family, land does all the rough
work at intervals, while the husband
calmly smokes his 'arsclic, or sits cross
legged upon his divan, or housc-top, in
converse with some equally hard work
ing member of Syrian society. The
houses are made of coarse stone,
roughly hewn. The house tops are oi
clay, covered with coarse gravel. In
hot weather the sun bakes this mud
formed roof, and large cracks appear.
The rain comes, and, as natural conse-
qucnce, the roof leaks. This is some
thing of which the fastidious inhabitant
of tho Bible Land does not approve. 1t
does not add to his bodily comfort. He
remedies the difficulty, shall l tell you
howl Not by any effort of his own; far
from it; his wife comes, asccnds to the
house-top, and in the drenching rain,
propels roller of solid stone, backward
and forward, much as we use lawn
mower. This rolls the sun dried cracks
together, and prevents the entrance OF
water. These are only few of Syrian
housewives duties. Her reward is not
in this worll surely She cannot speak
to her husband in public; she eau receive
no carcss hefare his friends. She goes
veiled, and scantily clad. She has no
time to make her own habiliments, for
her hands must weave and spin and en-
broider artistically and abundantly for
the husband and male children. In
winter her feet are protectrl only by
open wooden sandals, and drops of blood
mark the way to the Syrian we'll. or
course this is among the lower and mid
die classes of society in Syria, but those
who belong to a higher class are very
few. The wealth of Syrian family is
not in money, but is estimated according
to the number of herds of camcls, goats,
sheep and cattle it possesses. The women
are fond of ornament, but have little op-
portunity for it. They always wear
the 'round tire like the moon," spoken
of in the Bible. Even the children have
these on. The form is a half-moon. A
I single row of silver coins overlapping
one another, and sewed upon piece of
coarse material through single hole
bored in one side, is attached to square
Of cloth, having long strings, which tie
under the black hair. This allows the
coins to rest in a curve about the fore
head. One of these tires, which we
/ had, weighed four pounds and six
ounces, and was was worth $50. We
now have child's tire, which weighs
two pounds. Over the round tire is
worn the heavy, hand-woven, linen veil.
The specimen we have is worth $50. and
is large enough for a piano cover. All
the silk for embroidery is gathered by
women from the silk-worms, and must
be spun and dved before they can use IT.
If mother in Syria presents daughter
to her husband, he is bitterly disap-
pointed. When you ask Syrian parent,
"How many children have you1" if his
family consists of five boys and six
daughters, he will tell you, 81 have five
children" They only count boys This
seems bitterly cruel when the workers
of Syria are of tho other sex. The girls
are dark-eyed, raven-haired, of olive
complexion, and usually of medium
height, though some are extremely tall
and muscular.